Glenn Lawrence Burke (November 16, 1952 – May 30, 1995) was a
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
(MLB) player for the
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
and
Oakland Athletics from 1976 to 1979. He was the first MLB player to come out as gay, announcing it in 1982 after he retired.
Though he would eventually embrace his sexuality publicly, rumors and mistreatment due to speculation eventually proved to be an emotional, psychological, and professional burden he could no longer endure; leading to his retirement from Major League Baseball after only four years. stating, "They can't ever say now that a gay man can't play in the majors, because I'm a gay man and I made it."
In October 1977, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate his Dodgers teammate
Dusty Baker
Johnnie B. "Dusty" Baker Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American baseball manager and former player who is the manager of the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in the MLB for 19 seasons, most notably with the Lo ...
after Baker hit his 30th home run; Burke raised his hand over his head and Baker slapped it. They are widely credited with inventing the
high five.
Burke kept active in sports after retiring from baseball. He competed in the 1982
Gay Olympics, now re-named Gay Games, in track, and in 1986 in basketball. He played for many years in the San Francisco Gay Softball League.
He died from
AIDS-related causes in 1995.
In August 2013, Burke was among the first class of inductees into the
National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. Burke was inducted into the
Baseball Reliquary
The Baseball Reliquary is a nonprofit educational organization "dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to exploring the national pastime’s unparalleled creative possibilities ...
's
Shrine of the Eternals in 2015.
Early athletic career
Burke was an accomplished high school basketball star, leading the
Berkeley High School Yellow Jackets to an undefeated season and the 1970 Northern California championships. Burke could dunk a basketball with both hands, a rare feat for anyone under 6 feet tall. He was voted onto the all-tournament team at the Tournament of Champions (TOC) and received a Northern California MVP award. Burke was named Northern California's High School Basketball Player of the Year in 1970.
Burke was awarded a scholarship to the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
in 1970, but after a few months there he returned home to Oakland. He then enrolled in
Merritt College and played on its baseball team. The Los Angeles Dodgers recruited Burke to start playing in its minor league system in 1971.
[Rapp, Linda. “Burke, Glenn (1952-1995).” GLBTQ Arts, Jan. 2008, pp. 1–3. EBSCOhost.]
Major League career
Toward the beginning of his career, an assistant coach described him as the next
Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-tim ...
.
Burke was a highly scouted star in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system before being called up to the major league club.
As a gay man, Burke's association with the Dodgers was difficult. According to his 1995 autobiography ''Out at Home'', Dodgers General Manager
Al Campanis
Alexander Sebastian Campanis (Greek: Αλέξανδρος Σεβαστιανός Καμπάνης; November 2, 1916 – June 21, 1998) was an American executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He had a brief major league playing career, as a ...
offered to pay for a lavish honeymoon if Burke agreed to marry.
Burke refused to do so,
and is said to have responded "to a woman?"
["Patient Zero"](_blank)
RadioLab
May 30, 2012. He also angered Dodgers' manager
Tommy Lasorda
Thomas Charles Lasorda (September 22, 1927 – January 7, 2021) was an American professional baseball pitcher and manager. He managed the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1976 through 1996. He was inducted into the Natio ...
by befriending the manager's gay son, Tommy Lasorda, Jr.
Lasorda has disputed that but says he does not understand Burke's behavior at the time: "Why wouldn't he come out? Why keep that inside? Glenn had a lot of talent. He could have been an outstanding basketball or baseball player. He sure was good in the clubhouse. What happened? I don't know what happened. He just wasn't happy here?" The Dodgers eventually traded Burke to the
Oakland Athletics for
Billy North
William Alex North (born May 15, 1948) is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball. From 1971 to 1981, he played for the Chicago Cubs (1971–72), Oakland Athletics (1973–78), Los Angeles Dodgers (1978) and San Francisco Giants (1979– ...
, claiming that they needed an experienced player who "could contribute right away".
The trade was unpopular with Dodgers players, with teammate
Davey Lopes
David Earle Lopes (; born May 3, 1945) is an American former second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He batted and threw right-handed. He played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, and Houston ...
remarking, "He was the life of the team, on the buses, in the clubhouse, everywhere."
[
In Oakland, Burke received little playing time in the 1978 and 1979 seasons. Burke suffered discrimination from both other players, with some teammates avoiding showering with Burke, and from the Athletics' management.] In the 2010 documentary ''Out: The Glenn Burke Story'', Claudell Washington related how newly installed 1980 manager Billy Martin
Alfred Manuel Martin Jr. (May 16, 1928 – December 25, 1989), commonly called "Billy", was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and manager who, in addition to leading other teams, was five times the manager of the New York Yan ...
introduced Burke to the new teammates on the team by stating "Oh, by the way, this is Glenn Burke and he’s a faggot,". The Oakland stories are probably false, considering Claudell Washington hadn't been with the A's since 1976, and Burke had been with them 2 years before Martin became manager. In 1980, during spring training, Burke suffered a knee injury. Billy Martin used this injury as an opportunity to consign Burke to a minor league team in Utah for the remainder of the season, ending his contract before the season ended.
In his four seasons and 225 games in the majors playing for the Dodgers and Athletics, Burke had 523 at-bats, batted .237 with two home runs, 38 RBIs and 35 stolen bases.
Sexuality
Burke said, "By 1978 I think everybody knew," and he was "sure his teammates didn't care." Former Dodgers team captain Davey Lopes
David Earle Lopes (; born May 3, 1945) is an American former second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He batted and threw right-handed. He played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, and Houston ...
said, "No one cared about his lifestyle." Burke told ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
,'' "Prejudice drove me out of baseball sooner than I should have. But I wasn't changing." He wrote in his autobiography that "prejudice just won out." Burke left professional sports at the age of 27. He told ''People
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
'' magazine in 1994 that his "mission as a gay ballplayer was to break a stereotype" and that he thought "it worked".
The high five
On October 2, 1977, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate his Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker
Johnnie B. "Dusty" Baker Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American baseball manager and former player who is the manager of the Houston Astros in Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in the MLB for 19 seasons, most notably with the Lo ...
after Baker hit his 30th home run in the last game of the regular season. Burke raised his hand over his head as Baker jogged home from third base. Not knowing what to do about the upraised hand, Baker slapped it. They have been credited with inventing the high five, an event detailed in the ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
'' 30 for 30'' film ''The High Five'' directed by Michael Jacobs.[ The high five is now widely ubiquitous.] After retiring from baseball, Burke used the high five with other LGBTQ residents of the Castro district of San Francisco, where it became a symbol of gay pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...
and identification.
Life after Major League Baseball and legacy
Burke continued his athletic endeavors after retiring from baseball. He won medals in the 100 and 200 meter sprints in the first Gay Games
The Gay Games is a worldwide sport and cultural event that promotes acceptance of sexual diversity, featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) athletes, artists and other individuals.
Founded as the Gay Olympics, it was star ...
in 1982 and competed in the 1986 Gay Games in basketball. His jersey number at Berkeley High School was retired in his honor. Burke played for many years in the SFGSL (San Francisco Gay Softball League), playing third base for Uncle Bert's Bombers.
An article published in ''Inside Sports
''Inside Sports'' magazine was a major general interest sports magazine in the United States. Launched in 1979 by Newsweek, it was designed as an edgier, monthly alternative to the longer-running ''Sports Illustrated'' and '' SPORT Magazine'' bra ...
'' magazine in 1982 made Burke's homosexuality public knowledge. Although he remained active in amateur competitions, Burke turned to drugs to fill the void in his life when his career ended. An addiction to cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...
destroyed him both physically and financially. In 1987, his leg and foot were crushed when he was hit by a car in San Francisco. After the accident, his life went into physical and financial decline. He was arrested and jailed for drugs and lived on the streets of San Francisco for a number of years, often in the same neighborhood that once embraced him. He spent his final months with his sister in Oakland. He died May 30, 1995, of AIDS complications at Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, California, at age 42. He was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.
When news of his battle with AIDS became public knowledge in 1994, the Oakland Athletics organization helped to support him financially. In interviews given while he was fighting AIDS, he expressed little in the way of grudges, and only one big regret – that he never had the opportunity to pursue a second professional sports career in basketball.
In 1999, Major League Baseball player Bill Bean revealed his homosexuality, only the second Major League player to do so. Unlike Burke, who came out to teammates while he was still an active player, Bean revealed himself four years after his retirement in 1995, the year Burke died.
On August 2, 2013, Burke was among the first class of inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.
In July 2014, Major League Baseball announced plans to honor Burke at the 2014 All-Star Game, doing so as part of a pregame press conference on July 15, 2014. The Fox broadcast in the United States did not mention Burke.
On June 17, 2015, the Oakland Athletics honored Burke as part of Athletics Pride Night. Burke's brother, Sydney, threw the ceremonial first pitch
The ceremonial first pitch is a longstanding ritual of baseball in which a guest of honor throws a ball to mark the end of pregame festivities and the start of the game. Originally, the guest threw a ball from their seat in the grandstand to ...
at the game. On June 4, 2021, the Athletics renamed their annual Pride Night in Burke's honor, with the first rechristened Glenn Burke Pride Night to be held a week later on June 11.
Burke was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary
The Baseball Reliquary is a nonprofit educational organization "dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to exploring the national pastime’s unparalleled creative possibilities ...
's Shrine of the Eternals in 2015.["Shrine of the Eternals – Inductees"](_blank)
Baseball Reliquary. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
References
Further information
*
* ''Out. The Glenn Burke Story.'' 2010 documentary film, produced by Doug Harris, Sean Madison. 1 hour
http://www.thenation.com/blog/155946/reviewing-out-glenn-burke-story]
* Jennifer Frey
"A Boy of Summer's Long, Chilly Winter; Once a Promising Ballplayer, Glenn Burke Is Dying of AIDS"
''New York Times'', October 18, 1994.
*
External links
*
Episode
of ''Radiolab
''Radiolab'' is a radio program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, and broadcast on public radio stations in the United States. The show is nationally syndicated and is available as a podcast. Live shows were first off ...
'' discussing Glenn Burke (in the third segment)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Glenn
1952 births
1995 deaths
African-American baseball players
AIDS-related deaths in California
Albuquerque Dukes players
Bakersfield Dodgers players
Baseball players from Berkeley, California
Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California) alumni
Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California)
Daytona Beach Dodgers players
Gay sportsmen
LGBT African Americans
LGBT people from California
American LGBT sportspeople
LGBT baseball players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Major League Baseball outfielders
Oakland Athletics players
Ogden A's players
Ogden Dodgers players
Spokane Indians players
Baseball players from Oakland, California
Waterbury Dodgers players
20th-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century LGBT people